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MMORPG King of the Hill
eToyChest has a look at some current MMOG market leaders, and specifically takes a look at what they're 'good' at. If you've been thinking about playing an online game, this might be a useful tool to help pick the one game you'll enjoy most. From the article: "MMORPGs have evolved rapidly in terms of technology and gameplay, and with the continually growing number of gamers being pulled into these games, more and more titles have been shoveled onto retail shelves in order to keep up with the demand. Despite the fact that there isn't any one clear front-runner in the genre currently, the diversity and variety in MMORPGs today (both in the games available now and in the months to come) give many more options to most any gamer. However, here we will discuss those games that serve as the premier offerings for gamers today, as well as those set to be released in the near future, and we'll identify why these games are the Kings of the Hill."
Dangit, I thought I'd be playing as Hank Hill. Another dream shattered by reading the details
1. World of Warcraft.
<end of list>
Everquest II wins two of the catagories, but I NEVER hear about this game anymore (I hear about City of Villians/Heroes and WoW all the time), but Eve Online won NOTHING? It didn't even get mentioned...
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With all the MMORPGs that are out, we definately do need a nice article that sums up the pro's and con's to all the games out there. This article is a nice start, but it's much too short, and misses several games (EVE Online and Guild Wars, to name a few).
It'd also be nice to have an MMO history article of sorts. Quite often I see people (mainly WoW players) complaining why feature X isn't in the game. For example, a few hardcore PvP gamers wonder why we don't have a real PvP world where you can kill someone and loot their actual belongings. I'd love to point them to an article that shows that Ultima Online tried this years ago and it didn't turn out well for the casual player ("Corp Por" anyone?). Or that anybody who complains about long flight times between Auberdine and Theramore (currently clocking at 11 mins) needs to go back to the original Everquest and try doing some travelling in that game.
-- jchenx
1) Bring your phone and egg to the gas station.
2) Talk on phone while filling your car and holding egg.
3) Wait for explosion.
4) Enjoy.
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Cthulhu Saves.
Looks like somebody finally liked the NGE!
don't forget to bring your GPS device and cellphone.
It can get kind of busy with 50,000 players all trying to run up a hill randomly selected around the world.
Plus, make sure your credit cards have enough left on them to buy a round trip ticket.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
There's not one clear front-runner in the genre?!?
I'd say the fact that 5 MILLION WoW accounts exist would say otherwise. 1 in 100 Americans have a WoW account. That's statistically significant.
~W
sig?
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What I want is a MMORPG that lets me solo and play for short periods of time. I normally drop out of an MMORPG about the time I *have* to start teaming to gain any experience. Don't get me wrong, I love to interact with others and enjoy team gameplay. But in all honesty I have a very busy life and more often than not I don't have several hours at a time to sit down, try and find a good group, wait while everyone stocks up on regeants or whatever, debates where to hunt, and then goes there to do their thing. It just takes too long. Its fun on the weekend when I've got more time, but I want something I can just log into for 30-45 minutes and actually make some progress/have some fun every night before bed.
Dangit - when I read the article headline I was hoping for an MMO set in Arlen, Texas.
The design of that web page is so bad that I refuse to read the article. I have zero tolerance for flashing ads. I clicked on the "print" button hoping to get a more-readable page, but instead got a page of gray text on a blue-gray background, unreadable in Safari.
Bite my shiny metal ass, etoychest.org.
I was not too pleased with the article failing to mention so many other games out there. They author(s) stuck to only the big names in gaming, using WoW,, FFXI EQ/EQ2, CoH/V, DAoC, SG:G,, AC, and a mention of the soon to be released DDO.
What happened to Eve, Linenage II, Guild Wars, and various others? No mention of the psuedo-betas like Silk Road or any others?
I can live with some of their assessments. DDO is going to take top prize for A/V when it is released. The graphics really are that good.
As for WoW being the king of PvP, that is only by default, imo. Too many people are playing the game in general, so they get an automatic "best PvP". In reality, with population imbalances on many servers, it is often a joke. (On Uther, the Horde could start a PvP instance right away. The Alliance were known to wait for hours, especially early on.)
I don't see any game doing a perfect blend of PvE and PvP. They tend to be counter-productive. You balance for PvE, and PvP gets skewed. Balance for PvP, and you break something for PvE. PvP causes a lot of developer headaches, because a tactic gets used and abused, or not used by rumored, and then all hell breaks lose. (Anyone else remember the "nerf rogues and their stun-lock" arguements, with the length of stuns reaching up to 30 seconds after a week? Yet it was impossible to really stun beyond 10, and only in perfect situations.)
If you are going to do PvP, do PvP. If you aren't, don't try to add some half-assed version of it to appease the minority. Do whatever you are best at.
And here I was looking forward to being Bobby.
From what you hear? If you didn't try...WOW PvP is certainly better than a lot of MMORPG out there, if not all of them. Its no FPS, but its pretty solid as far as MMORPG goes.
As for Dark Fall, the article is talking about current market leaders. And beside, to have cool PvP you need to have other players to kill... Which do not lack in WOW.
It's pvp is fucking SHITTY. It's class/level/gearbased, and like .3% of it is based on skill.
The #1 pvp game is/was Asheron's Call, the one skill (player and character skill) based game out there pvp wise. Since Throne of Destiny and the year or 2 leading up to it the game has become shittier and shittier, but it will always be the #1 pvp game to have come out so far. AC:Darktide was the pinnacle of MMORPG Persistant PVP Worlds, and the most dramatic and amazing fights/politics in the genre occurred on that server.
World of Warcraft is like running in a hamster wheel, not like shooting fish in a barrel or any other soon to be Ted Nugent TV show.
That you care more about the MM than you do about the G.
Don't!
As someone who's been playing WoW for the past 4 months, I can safely say the writer has no idea wth he is talking about. '5-man groupings' are alsow done only because people don't want to share to the loot with too many people. 5-man groupings are perfect sizes for most instances (1, maybe 2 tanks, a healer and 2 DD are the norm).
PvP settings are more or less nothing more than town raids (which are nothing more than provoking the other side into sending players to fight back since theres no rewards or long term effects of wiping out a town) or grinding in Battlegrounds (assuming you can get in as an Alliance player or you don't go up against a 'twinked' opposing team).
"difficult large scale raiding instances"? What game is he playing? Like all video games, players have already figured out whats the 'best' way to do an instance, with which classes, with exact spells to be used at what points, etc etc for most instances in the game. Most guilds have it down so well they'll sometimes go on instances with half the recommended number of people. The constant addition of new 'uber gear' instead of mid-level or low level gear doesn't help either.
I like WoW, but some of these 'awards' are just stupid. 'Best PvP'? Wth? From what I hear in comparison to other MMOs, WoW has the worst PvP balance and design. The crafting system is bare bones, exping get lonely and lets be honest, the Horde models are some of the ugliest I've seenen since Quake 1.
King of the Hill MMORPG? Can I play as Hank Hill?
Rather more than one in a hundred Americans also watch MTV on a regular basis.
Does that mean you should also? At the upper end of the curve, subscriber numbers are a better indicator of mediocrity than they are for anything else.
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
Seconded.
King of the PvP hill belongs to Dark Age of Camelot which is entirely built around 3 realms fighting for land and control of powerful artifacts. It has siege machines, tower and keep capture and repair, guild ownership of towers and keeps, whole dungeons that are pvp areas. You can have sieges against massive castles with catapults, rams and trebuchets that last hours.
Or possibly guildwars for smaller scale pvp, but thats a bit light on some other elements of mmorpgs.
But to call World of Warcraft king of the pvp hill at the moment with it's 3 battlegrounds which play a like counterstrike or a FPS CTF is plain wrong. Hell they didn't even show a screenshot of PvP in WoW. Everyone is WoW crazy and forget about the mmorpgs that came before.
And you'd think they could have at least mentioned UO in passing.
*Disclaimer* I'm currently enjoying WoW and quite like the odd round of AB.
Just reread this and I take back the counterstrike statement, it's nothing like counterstrike, more like Unreal Tournament.
"MMORPGs have evolved rapidly in terms of technology and gameplay"
More like MMORPGs have evolved rapidly in terms of ram reqs while gameplay has stay at or below M59...
It would be like unreal tournament, if unreal tournament sucked.
Look for me (as Lars Overshank) in Expodrine, scragging those Cheese Elementals.
Would have been nice if they had a bang for your buck section. After suffering through SWG a while I swore I'd never again pay monthly for this type of game.
I originally bought Guild Wars because of the free online play. It restored my faith in the genre and I think I'm going to go buy WOW now.
I know it's not the same, but it's the only MMOG I can stand to play. Finally, a virtual world for the terminally brilliant.
It's like those dumb puzzle games on Yahoo, but every puzzle works towards a piratey goal, like drinking someone under the table, or running a smoothly operating pirate ship, or defeating an army of other pirates. The games are fun and short, and you can get interesting things done in less than half an hour.
Best of all, if you don't have much of a stake in getting ahead in the game or having the best pirate clothes, you can play for free on micropayment (Doubloon) servers. I've whiled away many hours at no cost to myself. The monthly, if you want it, is $10 or less.
Check it out for a refreshing break from ready-to-slash stance.
http://www.puzzlepirates.com/
Q: What did the comedian say to the crowd?
A: If I knew, this joke would be funny.
They were completely fair to Dark Age of Camelot. Is a shoutout not good enough for a game that is nearing the end of it's lifecycle? Seriously. I'm sure PvP on DAoC is better than WoW, but WoW has solid PvP and is in its prime.
The battlegrounds being FPS-ish isn't a problem. WoW PvP is rather balanaced and definitely fun. The lack of consequence is its only real problem.
Even if you dont like sci-fi or spaceships games, EVE is the best game so far.
* Astonishing graphics
* The game never ends (good even if you are very old in the game)
* You dont need to powerlevel (like 99% of other MMORPGS). Also the game doesnt end at lvl60 (see WOW).
* Awesome market, economy.
* Awesome crafting system.
* Awesome player driven politics.
* Ubber players will not be over you, you can still beat them unless they are very specialized and good at what they do.
* Even if you are young, you can participate with the big boys in hard events.
* PVP is the best you can find.
* NPC, faction, loot, very good.
* unmatchable types/roles for ships.
* You can be any or all, miner, explorer, pirate, trader, builder, pvp'er, pve'r, etc..
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